Photo courtesy Coalition to Protect American Indian Education Rights
Students at the University of Utah held a protest Dec. 4 over policies they said “alienate, divide and destroy American Indian communities,” including mascot issues, offensive slogans and termination of a teacher training program.
Native student protest has diverse roots and reasons
By
Carol Berry, Today correspondent
Story Published:
Feb 4, 2009
Story Updated:
Feb 3, 2009
SALT LAKE CITY – Charges and countercharges of hostility and misunderstanding have fueled a long-standing controversy that erupted Dec. 4 when a group of Native students confronted the University of Utah to call for an investigation into policies affecting them.
The protest march was peaceful and, while no university officials spoke to the group, Michael Young, University of Utah president, was asked – unsuccessfully – to meet about issues highlighted at the protest, said Deb Yazzie, head of the Coalition to Protect American Indian Education Rights.
“The purpose of this protest is to raise awareness of the university’s attempts to silence American Indian students, staff and faculty who protest university policies that ultimately alienate, divide and destroy American Indian communities,” the coalition’s prepared statement read.
Asked to elaborate on the group’s concerns, Yazzie said the University of Utah uses the “Ute” nickname and has the red-tailed hawk as a mascot, “but the community and the university have not embraced that – people still wear feathers and paint and do the ‘tomahawk chop.’”
The many-faceted sense of outrage appears to center only in part on the “Ute” name as used by the university. Other key issues have included a T-shirt offensive to students, a controversial sign displayed during a volleyball game at nearby Brigham Young University and the termination of an American Indian teacher-training program.
The NCAA in 2005 exempted the University of Utah from its ban on Indian mascots because the university had an agreement on use of the “Ute” name with the Northern Ute tribe, headquartered in Fort Duchesne, Utah. The student coalition contends there were promises from the university to the Northern Ute tribe “to help Ute students get college educations in exchange for the continued use of the ‘Ute’ nickname,” but the university has denied there were agreements for specific services or programs.
Coalition members objected to a T-shirt sold on campus Nov. 6 depicting a headdress and moccasin-wearing, bare-chested man with a large nose, presumably representing the University of Utah “Runnin’ Utes,” roasting a representation of a horned frog, the mascot of an opposing team, Texas Christian University, before a football game. The horned frog was also said to be sacred to some indigenous peoples. The non-student vendors and the university later apologized.
In a similar incident, a university web page displayed a shirtless white man in a student cheering section wearing a blue headdress and paint on his cheeks, said Earl Clegg, campus bookstore director. Although the students connected the web page to the bookstore, the offensive depiction was on the university’s licensing web page until it was taken down in November, he said.
The coalition also targeted a display of offensive messages by a fan on a dry erase board during a volleyball game in 2007 at BYU in Provo, Utah. The messages said “Back to the Rez 4 U” and “Trail of Tears Part II” in reference to the rival “Ute” team. Apologies were issued, but no action was taken against the individual fan because BYU did not determine who she was.
Finally, the university’s decision to end a popular American Indian teacher training and math/science program was a key element in the recent student unrest.
In 2007, the university signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Towaoc, Colo. and White Mesa, Utah, for an American Indian teacher training program under which the university agreed to actively recruit qualified Native students, provide counseling and other support systems and work toward employment for graduates. The Utes agreed to recruit, publicize and assist in the program and to advise the university.
The university subsequently announced that about $2 million in grants had been received from the U.S. Office of Indian Education to prepare math and science teachers and to enable teacher aides to become certified teachers. The latter was in part a program coordinated with schools in Kayenta, Ariz. on the Navajo Nation.
But a year after the grant announcement, the program was dropped, for reasons that vary according to the source. The university’s official position is that the $1.5 million it would have had to provide in matching funds would have come from state money appropriated for “instructional services and programs for students university-wide.”
It “would have been inappropriate to divert these monies, especially to programs outside the state of Utah,” the statement said.
Prof. Bryan Brayboy, Lumbee, who headed the program, left the university in August 2007 because, “it was clear to me that my own ideology about the work we were doing wasn’t compatible with the university’s ideologies about meeting the needs of Native students and communities. I didn’t feel supported in my position.”
The AITTP “was always about ‘we,’ not ‘I’ and that doesn’t always play well with these institutions, but you’re not able to talk back.”
Octavio Villalpando, the university’s assistant vice president for equity and diversity, said the issue is not one of control, but rather one of “sustainability,” because the American Indian teachers’ program, now under the College of Education with full-time faculty and support staff, is a sustainable program that does not rely on federal grants that might not be renewed.
In terms of overall funding administered by the university he said, “we treat American Indian students like all other under-represented communities,” citing students of color; women in certain fields of study; gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, and “especially first-generation” students in those target groups.
Tuesday, Mar 24 at 12:39 AM Native Student at the U, part II wrote ...
...then re-writing the SAME grant (AITTP) only now it's called American Indian Teacher Program (AITP). Seven american indian students were ready to start as the next cohort under AITTP but were never officially notified that the $2 mil was sent back. Is this commitment? Only one American indian student out of the seven decided to stay at the U but will now be leaving due to no funds under AITP. I'm excited to watch all the information unfold in court. This will be a landmark case in Native Ed!
18449226Tuesday, Mar 24 at 12:35 AM Native Student at the U wrote ...
I'd like to thank the staff of Indian Country Today in providing information showing that the University is in fact not following thru on its commitment to the Ute people nor the American Indian students, staff and faculty. The administrators are starting to sound a lot like corrupt politicians. For instance, the College of Ed does not want to rely on Federal funding but yet 80% of funding for the school comes from the Federal Govt! The latest twist is the U sending the $2 mil back and....
18449162Monday, Mar 2 at 7:49 PM Seriously wrote ...
I think it's ridiculous that this is still going on. There should definitely be an investigation as to why the teaching program really lost the funding. Who was consulted regarding that matter? Why do the reasons vary according to the source? Doesn't that alone raise red flags? My experience was filled with lack of support and frustration. I would strongly recommend that future students steer clear of this University. If you want a university that is SAFE for Indian students, go elsewhere.
17390817Monday, Mar 2 at 12:33 PM help wrote ...
I thank Indian Country for running this story the way it should have been. We as students are seeking your help as our elders and native community. As students we can only do so much and our words can only mean so much. Elders.. we can only thrive in a setting that is free from these kinds of actions. Are you not the ones in our communities that tell us young ones to seek an education??? Well we need help to have schooling that is equal and just. We need your help
17363347Monday, Mar 2 at 11:51 AM Anonymous wrote ...
An investigation into the University's actions should be performed. There is much more below the surface than the things that were mentioned here. We need help. When Native students, staff and faculty have no support from the Native community, they have nothing. Thank you Indian Country for publishing this story. We have tried so hard to make people aware of the destruction but people have refused to help us. We need to stand behind each other. When one Native goes down, we all lose. Think 1492.
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